The witching hour.

This is the name given to the period of time immediately preceding my children’s dinner time and usually lasts until I am finally able to put them to bed around 1900hrs.

Roughly a two hour period where my children’s behaviour often resembles a scene from a prison riot or a spartan battle. It is the period of time in which we normally see a number of melt downs, tears, tantrums and sibling fights; furthermore it’s the time of day I generally end up with a massive headache!

I generally avoid making any appointments during this time that may require any kind of interaction because I know their behaviour will not only make me look incompetent it will also embarrass me and make me angry.

That said, I sometimes forget about the witching hour, like I foolishly did today, when I made the stupid decision to take my kids out for tea. I then found myself loosing my s@&t when my eldest was having a meltdown because his crayon from the activity pack had snapped and all the while I was trying to stop my toddler throwing himself out of his high chair as he waited for his food. He somehow always manages to get one leg out resulting in him getting stuck which then makes him scream even louder and even more high pitched.

My food goes cold every time, I spend a majority of the meal picking up food Chester has launched across the restaurant and we manage to clear the immediate area around us with Chester’s high pitched screams.

Those diners that don’t leave either quietly voice their opinion on my parenting skills or just stare in disapproval at us ruining their evening meal.

Why do I do it? I ask myself that same question every time! Each time reminding myself that the next time I think about eating out during the witching hour I will remember his moment. I clearly failed to remember today!

It’s the period of time that I would invite anyone considering starting a family into my house to witness the real horrors of parenting, you know the stuff baby books don’t show you.

I always find myself asking what is it that makes them so wild? What causes my kids to change from their normal happy selves into wild, savage animals.

It can’t only be me this happens to? Surely it’s not just my children that go feral at this time of the day? Why don’t I see anyone else going through this?

I’ve come to the conclusion that perhaps the reason I haven’t noticed others being pushed to their limit during the witching hour is because they are sensible enough not to take their children out during this period of time and it’s just me that forgets and then has to endure the witching hour behaviour.